10 Albums That Were Released Completely By Surprise

Even if they weren't anticipating it, every single album that caught us off guard has seemed like a spectacle once it's actually released. Since no one was really ready to be hit with new music, these records almost feel like events within themselves, as we all get used to songs that many of us weren't anticipating. It's easy to release it by surprise, but Alice in Chains managed to downplay SAP so much that fans had to go digging for it.

Around the same time that they were asked to make a song for the movie Singles, Alice nailed down the demo of what would become Would?, only to find out that they had a few more days in the studio and decided to make the most of the situation. Playing around with a bunch of acoustic instruments, SAP became their first real foray into unplugged music, with songs like Brother and Got Me Wrong becoming staples of their MTV appearance years later.

When they actually tried to release it though, they decided to not build it up at all, just leaving it in record stores and letting the real fans seek it out. It was so much of a secret that many of the hardened metal fans of the band were actually caught off guard when they played the songs live, opting to throw things at the band during the first few acoustic sections of their gigs. The distortion may be kept to a minimum on these albums, but all of the darkness that came from the early days hadn't dulled in the slightest.